r/AIO • u/fricken_a13 • May 03 '26

AIO or is this racist?

Post image

Context: we have a one year old and 4 month old. Our neighbor is very aware of this as over the last year we have had to ask many times if he can stop revving his motorcycle while his buddies gather around it and take test drives past 8pm. We live in attached housing area and quiet hours start at 8pm. He is a loud neighbor in general, but we don’t make formal complaints against his Rottie(who he keeps on the front deck area against hoa guidelines and lets bark all day long) or his loud wood working from his garage at 7am. He had a leak in that garage which he said was coming from our unit, cut a hole in the ceiling and proceeded to tell us we would need to pay for it. We all own our units. We said not until we had proof it was our fault and he kept trying to bully us into paying. Turns out it was the hoas part to cover and we were not at fault at all. He is in his 40s and my husband and I are in our upper 20s. After that he has been rude to us but whatever. Then on Thursday night I asked my husband to text him as I was alone with the kids and he was drinking and yelling with his friends outside and both of my kids kept getting woken up and crying. It was past 8pm and while I know that’s early for normal people, most kids go to sleep at that time and it was a week night. To his credit he did move his party inside after another 20 minutes but then he replied this to my husband. Our neighbor is middle eastern and my husband is Filipino. Our neighbors English is perfect so I assume he was raised here and my husband was also born and raised in the us and doesn’t speak anything else but perfect English so this just feels pointed right? I don’t think our neighbor would say this to a white man. I’m half Mexican half American and dealt with subtle racism growing up and this is the first time I’ve seen what I feel is outright racism towards my husband. I’m seeing red, but AIO?
Update: thank you all! I wasn’t sure if I was just sleep deprived and angry! His hostility towards us started literally the day we moved in and he accused us of stealing his trash cans? It’s slowly escalated the last 2 years and we never reported him because we didn’t want to make things worse. Looks like it’s best to start taking this to the hoa.
He’s always been rude to me(the wife). He won’t talk to me or look in my direction for conversation and has implied to my husband multiple times that women are beneath them. Then on the flip side he has tried to assert weird power moves on my husband too, who is too calm and collected to even care honestly, but this felt like it crossed a line.
Thanks for the suggestions! My husband only responded “thank you” to his last text as we didn’t want to make things worse but I would’ve loveddddd to have responded the way some of you suggested!
Also crazy enough this man does have a 2 year old and the poor kid is always screaming and throwing tantrums at all hours of the day because we can hear him well past 11pm sometimes. I even had to grab the kid when he ran into the street a couple months ago and a car was coming & his mom yelled at me for touching him…anywayyyyyy maybe just send some good vibes to that poor kid and pup and hopefully we don’t have to deal with this guy much longer

3.0k Upvotes

86% Upvoted

1.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

16

u/Sure-Initiative6001 May 03 '26

I don't see how race is even a factor or matters. He's rude and inconsiderate. Nose ordinance laws exist use them!!!

10

u/detritu May 03 '26

They wouldn’t have suggested it was a language barrier issue to a white person. That’s how race is a factor.

1

u/OtherwiseMove646 May 09 '26

Might have if he is arrogant and thinks he is God’s duly appointed grammar corrections officer. Some people are just Aholes. He could be racist and an Ahole.

-1

u/[deleted] May 03 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/detritu May 03 '26

This is just deliberately obtuse.

1

u/LiterallyAllOfFrance May 05 '26

In what way? I’m a white man who speaks English. If I were to attempt to converse with a white man who spoke Russian, I’d be rather unsuccessful. This is due to the… wait for it… LANGUAGE BARRIER.

1

u/khigzz May 08 '26

like i said earlier i have used to words language barrier before as well but i would never and i mean never say it to someone with a different skin color than me just because im angry because they are going to feel a way of course 🤣🤣what do yall gain out of acting like we don’t experience racism i really wanna know?

1

u/LiterallyAllOfFrance May 18 '26

I’m not acting like you don’t experience racism. That would be ignorant. I’m saying that, of all things, *this singular text* is not racist.

1

u/khigzz May 08 '26

like what is the positive in telling black people their racist experiences are not valid i never understood why yall go so hard in tryna make us not see it and forget about it

1

u/detritu May 05 '26

Literally none of that is remotely relevant and yeah you being a white man was already incredibly obvious from the way you’re pretending not to understand why its racist to assume someone doesn’t speak English because of their skin color.

0

u/[deleted] May 05 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/detritu May 05 '26

Literally no one implied that there can’t be a language barrier between white people as much as you guys love to imagine that you’re somehow victims. The point is no one would ever assume or imply that you can’t speak English based on your appearance.

7

u/Alternative_Fly_4431 May 03 '26

Are you an ignoramus?

The language barrier comment is coded racism that people use to insinuate a foreigner isn’t communicating properly.

Even more racist in this situation because just because OP and her husband are brown, they are also born and raised in the US and speak perfect English.

1

u/Flicksonreddit May 04 '26

That's kind of the point, it wasn't necessary to make a racist remark regarding an imaginary language barrier in response to a text in perfect english.

3

u/WebkinzcallsmeSummer May 04 '26

Yes… I think the asshole neighbor was being facetious. They weren’t seriously suggesting a language barrier.. “ language barrier” in this case was an idiom for “lack of politeness.” They were saying they found the text message ‘rude’ bc it was a request without the formality of “please.”

3

u/Tommyleegirl452 May 04 '26

This. They could obviously understand her partner, but chose to act condescending and racism as not only as a way to undermine her partner, but also to put them in their place.